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"The Disappontment for the losers"

If the makers of 'The Weakest Link' were to create a talent show for Sunday nights, it wouldn't be wildly different to 'Star For a Night', hosted by Jane Macdonald on BBC1. IT FOOLS YOU INTO THINKING IT'S A NICE, INNOCENT TALENT SHOW! It starts off like your average Sunday night public opportunity to get fifteen minutes of fame. You get Jane introducing a 'highly qualified?!!!' selection of showbiz 'experts'. Barbara Windsor being the pop icon that she is regularly appears together with the miserable Ian Hyland, Nigel Martin-Smith and then you often find stars from soaps or boy-bands making up the panel of four. You even get the introduction to the 'stars' in their everyday lives ala 'Stars in their Eyes'. I think Jane is more cunning however, she sneaks up on them at work and surprises them as is often how 'This is your Life' starts it's shows. She was nearly thumped by an amateur boxer who was training and about to be pounced on my Ms Macdonald. DOWN TO BUSINESS This is where the programme breaks from its BBC nice warm touchy feely opportunity knocks roots and mimics ITV's 'Popstars'. We see the acts going through coaching to fine tune their skills. I was quite amused by the bluntness here - one was criticised for having a smug grin throughout his song, another was told he had no expression on his face, and others being told that there singing was boring. This is before they have performed to the audience and before the panel have gotten hold of them! THE 15 MINUTES OF SAFETY Before the panel totally shatter the nerves of the acts, each one enters the stage from a 'Stars In their Eyes' style doorway (but with noticeably less dry-ice!). The stars admittedly vary in their abilities. Some are obviously straight out of Butlins or some kind of Karaoke Nightmare! Some however would fit very nicely into a boy band or the backing group for Wh am!. Now and again someone really stands out like Natasha Panas who played piano and performed a rendition of 'Because the night belongs to lovers' (you know the one) and she had the perfect Bonnie Tyler style voice to back it up. Acts like this really stand out but I feel sorry for the others who really thought that 'Star for a Night' could transcend the barriers of actually being good and just let them impress their friends and families. THE SOUL CRUSHING VERDICT Despite the insane audience made up of all the acts' families and friends who grin madly throughout and dance embarrassingly in the aisles, despite coaching, charisma, determination or style, the panel reviews it on one main criterion - would they get a record contract. Ina Hyland, one of the most negative of a recent panel, said of one girl 'There are millions of girls doing what you do, I didn't like the song and I nearly fell asleep to be honest.' Many a musical career will come to an abrupt end in the hands of this panel! No further coaching appears to be given on the show and the stars leave to return to their families. I'm sure though that most have mothers who will never forget the night their kiddy became a star for the night! JANE MACDONALD PASSES THE TIME While the panel decides which of the acts wins each show, Jane Macdonald ironically gets on stage and performs a standard cabaret version of a Supremes song in an unemotional way and I always wish they'd give a damning review of her likelihood of getting another record contract! Would she have got one in the first place without her docu-soap crazed groupies?!! ONE MORE TIME The panel choose a winner who gets to perform their piece again. To be honest - after taking such a battering which many of the eventual winners often do on the show) I would have stormed off home by this point. IF YOU'VE MISSED IT Don't panic, the final is on 20th October 2001 and the BBC will no doubt repeat the series on BBC Choice. A new series will follow shortly as it seems the Beeb have a taste for realism, taking with mickey out of the public, and doing hundreds of cheap programs where the public do the work! So if you missed it - there's plenty more where this came from.

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I have never watched Star For A Night before, until last Sunday night. There was nothing else on worth watching so I thought I would watch it. The host is Jane McDonald, who started out as a cabaret singer on a cruise liner, she was lucky because the television did a series about the different people on the liner she sang on, and people thought she was a really good singer, so her singing career took off. On Star For A Night, five singers sing there songs in front of a panel of 4 people, they then give them there honest opinion about them, sometimes the panels comments are good and other times they are bad, and if Frank Butcher(Mike Read) is on the panel then the comments are always good eg"You'll go far, me lad", "What a fantastic singer". Jane goes to meeet and suprise all the artists and asks them to appear on Star For A Night. They all then appear on the show, and sing their songs in front of the panel of judges, then the worse part for them is to be told by the panel if they are good or bad, or what they need to do to improve themselves. When they've all done their turns, Jane sings a ong while the judges decided who the winner is. I am not very keen on Jane's singing, but I can listen to her as she sings more middle of the roaf songs. The panle of judges then announces the winner who then goes through to the grand final. I quite liked it and I might watch it again, there was a really good singer on who sang Tom Jones "Sex Bomb". I thought he desrved to win and think he will most likely win the final. Definitely worth a look.

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I don't like eminem cuz he his just a lil bitch in hiding. I bet you all don't know that he sang backdoor boys and n'suck type shit b4 rap. Also the lil hoe put on his flyer when is first album came out that ICP might be at his record release party. ICP and eminem had never even spoken b4 that. Also, he says that he's going to kill his wife and that he'll beat your ass and kill you but...when he catches some1 making out with his wife he pulls an UNLOADED GUN, and then on T.v. kisses Kim ass. He is a lil pussy ass bitch that is only famus cuz 1. Dre's fucking him. 2. Dre's using him to regain his fame. 3. Mtv's using him to regain the white suburbain audience that has so much money to waist. eminem ain't nuttin but a bitch thang. -boi,

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Star for a night is BBCs answer to ITVs Stars in their eyes! However, as addicted to Stars in their eyes I was, I now prefer the BBC version. I really admire Jane MacDonald, so maybe thats got something to do with it. The judges are honest, although Nigel can be a touch unkind at times. They do usually have a high class of act on, and sometimes I would hate to be a judge! Jane does her stuff, brilliantly, she will never change. She is as down to earth as she was when she was on the ship! The show has five contestants. In turn they all get introduced by Jane, and com eon stage to sing their song and dance (sometimes). They then go to get the judges comments, before getting a second round of applause from the audience! After all five have had their chance to perform and enjoyed the limelight for the evening, the judges must vote. There are two reguarly judges Nigel (forgotten his surname), and Barbara Windsor (Yes the one from EastEnders!), plus two guest judges.

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I was actually thinking of just writing 'Crap, Nuff said', and leaving this opinion at that, but I think some of the good people at dooyoo.co.uk may not appreciate that! But that sums it up. This program is just a way of keeping that bird off the Cruise in a job. The BBC gave Jane McDonald a contract and they are going to make sure she works for her money, even though she is as talentless as the people who appear on the show. Add to that a panel of judges who couldn't fill a front living-room never mind an A-List venue. No, I think I'm being unfair here. I could say the contestants on the show obviously have some amount of talent or else they wouldn't get on the show, but then the BBC do stick Miss McDonald up there for us to grimace at. The contestants need something worthwile to put their effort into, and a documentary spin-off isn't it. It is an insult to their skills that she is presenting it and they are being judged by 'big-hitters' such as Frank Butcher of Eastenders. <sarcasm> Cos he's brilliant, isn't he? </sarcasm> The fact that this show takes up prime-time television is also an insult to us licence-paying public. Do the BBC actually think this is the type of television we want to watch? Thank Logie Baird I have Sky to keep me occupied while this is on! (UPDATE!) I was asked what the contestants do in the program, but only having the stomach to watch a few minutes of this appalling nonsence I can only tell you that they can do whatever they want - it is a talent show. I saw a girl singing (very well) and they have had comedians on, and I think even someone doing magic tricks. It's a bit of a shame this show is so crap because some of these people may actually have some real talent.

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Star For A Night - It’s with a sense of irony (some would call it poetic justice) that Jane MacDonald presents this as she is a club singer who got famous on the back of appearing on another show (although some would argue indirectly through singing other people’s songs) and her presenting ‘skills’ seem firmly in the ‘Cilla’ mode. With permanent judges Barbara Windsor (is Windsor generally known as a singer? No! Has she ever had a knack for talent-spotting? Who knows, but the Beeb had the good sense to rope her in) and Nigel Martin-Smith (remember him? Yeah!? Take that, you fiend!). The singers participating are generally females who sing ballads whilst it is the guys who are seemingly the only ones willing to take a chance whether they be a band covering Supergrass (badly, I might add), or solo singers singing a folk song and my God, even a cappella groups make their presence felt here! Although we do get our fair share of male ballad singers as well. The concept is straight-faced but what with as many as seven wannabe finalists on any one show, to pick one winner is a scurrilous and soul-destroying experience (serves me right, for staying in on a Saturday night....) and is thoroughly an uneven affair as bands compete with one-man bands, ballad singers and the like it is unbalanced and solely at the discretion of the judges (with two guest judges ranging from soon-to-be-past-it Shola Ama and Shane Lynch to odd choices such as Tim Vincent) until the final where the public gets to vote! If you can imagine a more low-rent Stars In Their Eyes with a dash of the ill-fated Pot of Gold (Des O’Connor’s talent show that used to be shown on ITV), you’ll probably get the jist of Star For A Night. Even if the idea was with good intentions to showcase the singers vocal range, it’s just bland. Unfortunately for the contestants, that title will probably remain shockingly true to form.